New council leader's waste and speeding priorities

THE newly-elected leader of Surrey County Council has set out his vision for the future of the authority, highlighting speed management on the roads as a priority and also suggesting that the controversial use of incinerators as a proposed method of waste management could be scrapped.

THE newly-elected leader of Surrey County Council has set out his vision for the future of the authority, highlighting speed management on the roads as a priority and also suggesting that the controversial use of incinerators as a proposed method of waste management could be scrapped.

Conservative Andrew Povey took charge of Tuesday’s full council meeting at County Hall in Kingston following the recent elections , which saw the Tories retain overall control of the council.

Cllr Povey takes over from Cllr Nick Skellett, council leader for the past 12 years, and he pledged to listen to residents’ concerns and stamp his authority on the county from day one.

“I think it’s a fantastically exciting time for Surrey, there’s a huge refreshing of the county council going on,” Cllr Povey said.

“It is a considerable honour to lead Surrey County Council. I want to bring a fresh approach to the council and I am going to set out many changes.”

Cllr Povey, county councillor for Waverley Eastern Villages since 1993, expressed his desire for a “clean slate” as the authority looks to recover from a turbulent period including being named as one of the worst councils in the country by the Audit Commission in March.

“I don’t think [the rating] is a fair reflection on Surrey County Council in its entirety,” he said.

“Many areas of the council are well above the one-star rating. We have the officers, the staff and the calibre of people to make the improvements.

“If we didn’t, we wouldn’t still be running these services. The fact that we’re still here doing it shows that we have the capacity to improve.”

The council’s children’s services department was rated as inadequate by a Joint Area Review , and Cllr Povey said a lot of work had been done over the past six months to ensure things improve in this area.

"Quality of life"

Among a series of new initiatives announced by the new leader at Tuesday’s meeting was a scheme to offer bursaries to 50 undergraduate students of social work, in an attempt to recruit young people into what Cllr Povey admitted was an under-staffed profession.

The bursaries of £1,500 a year will offer priority to residents of Surrey, and could lead to summer placements and future employment prospects within the council.

“We want to pull in the best graduates we can and that’s one way of building up that loyalty,” Cllr Povey said.

He is also focusing on the hot topics of speeding and waste management.

Cllr Povey pledged to pump £1m into curbing excessive speed on the county's roads, promising to introduce more speed cameras and flashing signs.

“In my canvassing [for the elections] the thing that came up most was the public’s concern about speeding,” he said.

“We want to make motorists more aware of their responsibilities. It’s not just about road safety, it’s about quality of life as well. In some senses speeding is a form of anti-social behaviour.”

He stressed that the initiative was not designed as a money-making scheme, with the emphasis on offering speed awareness courses rather than issuing tickets.

Emotional meeting

Cllr Povey admitted that funds would have to be re-distributed, and said he was keen to avoid some of the wastefulness of the previous council leadership on things like leaflets and publications informing residents of the council’s work.

“This £1m will take some money out of other things, things that perhaps the public doesn’t see the value of,” he said.

“A lot of the publications and communications stuff that goes out is duplication, there are too many of them, and some of the market research work that is undertaken really duplicates what members should be bringing to the council.

“[The council] is a large organisation with a £1.7bn budget. I’m coming in with a fresh pair of eyes and I want to put some resources into curbing speeding so I will need to take money from other areas.”

“We have increased the recycling rate and invested a lot of money in the community recycling centres, and with that background I believe there is a possibility of removing the reliance on Energy from Waste plants,” he said.

“We want the environment and sustainability to be one of the key components of this administration.

"I think in Surrey we have got a very willing set of residents in terms of these issues so we will review the issue of whether we need [EfWs] as a matter of priority.”

Under the new 'strong leader' model of government, Cllr Povey will take sole responsibility for decisions surrounding green belt development and regulation of public sector salaries of more than £100,000, and he will have the power to open or close schools.

Cllr Povey’s first meeting at the helm was a tense affair, with many opposition members refusing to support his nomination as leader and Residents’ Association group chair Eber Kington launching an emotional attack on the Tories, accusing them of changing their leader to cover up deeper problems.

But Cllr Povey said he believed the changes he was proposing were “strong political statements” and that he hoped to speed up the decision making process at County Hall and eradicate bureaucracy.

“I want to be judged at the end of my four-year term on whether we’ve made a difference,” he said.

“It’s a clean slate. There are so many changes and I want to have a much greater focus and clarity about what we want to achieve.

“I think Surrey is a wonderful place to live. Our priority is to do what we can to hang on to those features that make Surrey unique.”